Somebody is asking you for money, or telling you money is in danger, and the message is built to make you move before you think. The full text of the FTC's consumer guidance on this exact moment fits in one short list — and it works because the scripts underneath almost never change their shape, only their costumes. This guide walks through those signs, the scripts the FTC has published, the size of the problem as the FTC measured it, and — just as important — what an automated check of a screenshot can and cannot honestly tell you.
The FTC's four signs
The FTC's "How To Avoid a Scam" guidance reduces every approach to four signs. Scammers:
- Pretend to be from an organisation you know — your bank, a government agency, a delivery firm, a tech company whose name you trust.
- Say there is a problem, or a prize — a suspended account, a failed delivery, a refund waiting, winnings you never entered for.
- Pressure you to act immediately — the countdown is not decoration; a person who pauses to check through another route is a person the script loses.
- Insist you pay in a specific way — cryptocurrency, a wire through a company like Western Union or MoneyGram, a payment app, or gift cards. The FTC's rule is the bluntest sentence in its guidance: never pay someone who insists on one of these.
Two companion rules from the same guidance are worth memorising outright. Honest organisations will not contact you unexpectedly asking for your Social Security number, bank account or card numbers. And never deposit a check and send money back — the check is built to bounce after your money has left.
The scripts in the wild
The FTC's impersonation spotlight describes the scripts currently doing the damage. Fake delivery problems: a text about a parcel — USPS, UPS, FedEx — that could not be delivered, with a small redelivery fee payable at a link; the fee is bait, the page behind it harvests card details. Fake security alerts: your account is suspended, your computer is infected, call this number now — the "agent" who answers is the second half of the script. "Move your money to protect it": the FTC states this one as an absolute — anyone who asks you to move money to protect it is a scammer, and real businesses and agencies never demand gift cards or Bitcoin ATM payments.
The overpayment script runs the same play in reverse: money "accidentally" arrives — a check from a buyer, an employer's first payroll, a refund that was never owed — and you are asked to send the extra back. The FTC's task-scam spotlight (December 2024) covers the job version, where small payments arrive first to build trust before the fees begin; its rule fits on one line: never pay anyone to get paid. Investment scripts promise the returns instead — and as the numbers below show, that is where the largest losses now sit.
Measured, not guessed
The FTC's March 2025 data release put reported consumer fraud losses for 2024 at $12.5 billion, up 25% on the year before, from 2.6 million reports. The share of people who reported losing money rose from 27% to 38% — the scripts are not just more numerous, they are converting better. Imposter scams were the most-reported category, at $2.95 billion lost, with government-imposter losses alone at $789 million. Investment scams took the largest single share at $5.7 billion. Losses paid by bank transfer and cryptocurrency together exceeded every other payment method combined, and email was the most common way the approach arrived. None of these figures counts the losses never reported — the FTC is clear the true total is higher.
The ask decides
Here is the complication honest guidance has to admit: banks send real fraud alerts, and real alerts sound urgent, because fraud is urgent. "Suspicious activity on your account" is a sentence your bank may in fact send you. That is why wording alone can only take you so far, and why any checker — ours included — that pretends wording settles the question is misleading you.
What settles it is the ask. Read what the message wants you to do: move money to another account; buy gift cards or cryptocurrency; pay by wire; deposit a check and send some of it on; read out a code; call a number the message itself supplied; tap its link. A bank or agency will ask for none of those, ever, under any circumstances. And whatever the message claims, settle it through a route it did not give you — the bank's own app, opened by you; the bank's web address, typed by you; the number printed on the back of your card. If the alert was real, the bank can see it there too, and nothing is lost by arriving through the front door.
What a checker can and cannot do
Automated checking is worth having — with its limits printed on the box. A pattern checker compares the words in front of it against scripts that have already been published. That catches a great deal: the callback number, the gift-card demand, the overpayment shape. It cannot catch a script written last week. It cannot ask your bank anything. It cannot see a trap that arrives as a phone call, a picture, or the destination behind a link. And when software reads a photograph, it can misread characters — which is why our Scam Screenshot Checker puts the read text in front of you to skim and correct before anything is checked, and why its third band reads "no known scam pattern found in this text" followed, immediately, by why that is not proof of anything.
One piece of honesty this guide owes you: a bigger tool already exists. Norton Genie, launched by Gen Digital in July 2023, is free and checks screenshots or pasted text of messages, emails, posts and websites. It is a general tool and a good one. Two things differ about ours. The reading and checking happen on your device — a screenshot of a bank message can carry names, amounts and pieces of account numbers, and Genie processes uploads on its servers while ours never uploads at all. And ours is built for the charge end of the problem: it checks bank charges and card alerts specifically, and every result ends in the recovery and deadline tools rather than in a verdict alone. If what you have is a suspicious email or website, Genie is the broader instrument; if it is a charge or a bank alert and money may already be moving, start here.
If it's a line on your statement
A bare statement line — a merchant name, an amount, a date — contains none of the language above, so no pattern check can judge it, in either direction. Most unrecognised charges are not fraud at all: statement descriptors are frequently a parent company, a payment processor or an abbreviation, not the name on the shopfront. Identify the merchant first. If the charge still is not yours, the question stops being about scripts and becomes the question this site exists for: how long do you have to dispute it? That window is already running — the deadline calculator gives you the date, Scan to Dispute reads it off a photograph of the statement, and the case checker tests whether the charge qualifies before you file.
Already paid? Work backwards
If money has already moved, the argument with the contact is over — the recovery route is what remains, and it weakens by the day. Work it in order:
- Stop all further payments today, and keep every message, receipt, screenshot and transaction reference. Do not delete the conversation — it is evidence.
- Go to your bank or app through its own front door — never through contact details the message supplied — and report it as fraud. Ask what recall or reimbursement route applies to how you paid, and get the answer in writing.
- Run your exact situation through the Scam Recovery Navigator: the path differs sharply between card payments, Zelle, Venmo, Cash App and PayPal, and some carry reimbursement rules with deadlines of their own.
- Put the dispute in writing inside the window with the Dispute Letter Generator, and report the approach itself: in the US at ReportFraud.ftc.gov — reports feed the Consumer Sentinel Network used by law enforcement — and in the UK to Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting centre.
FAQ
Can any tool tell me a message is safe?
No tool can honestly do that, including ours. An automated checker compares wording against scripts that have already been published. It cannot know about a script written last week, it cannot ask your bank whether an alert came from them, and it cannot see a trap that arrives as a picture, a phone call or a link's destination rather than words. The strongest honest result any checker can give is "no known pattern found" — which is not the same thing, and any tool that blurs that line is helping the wrong side.
A real alert from my bank got flagged by a checker. Was it fake?
Not necessarily — flags describe wording, not senders. Banks send real fraud alerts and those alerts often use urgent wording, because fraud is urgent. What separates a real alert from the script is what it asks you to do next. A bank will never ask you to move money to another account, buy gift cards or cryptocurrency, pay by wire, deposit a check and send part of it back, or read out a security code. Settle any alert through a route the message did not give you: the bank's own app, or the number printed on the back of your card.
I already sent the money. Is it gone?
Not always — but the clock started the moment it moved. What can be done depends on how you paid: card payments run through the issuer's dispute process with real deadlines; Zelle's network rules require participating banks to reimburse qualifying imposter scams where the scammer posed as a bank, a government agency or a company you already pay; gift-card and crypto payments are the hardest to pull back, which is exactly why the scripts demand them. Act the same day, keep every message and receipt, and work the recovery route rather than arguing with the contact.
Is an unrecognised charge on my statement automatically a scam?
No. Most unrecognised charges turn out to be ordinary purchases wearing an unfamiliar name — statement descriptors are often a parent company, a payment processor or an abbreviation rather than the shop name you remember. A bare charge line also contains none of the language scam scripts use, so pattern checking cannot judge it either way. Identify the merchant first; if it still is not yours, the question becomes a deadline question — how long you have to dispute it — and that window is already running.
Related reading
Sources (verified October 25, 2026): FTC, "How To Avoid a Scam" (consumer.ftc.gov — the four signs; honest organisations will not contact you unexpectedly asking for Social Security, bank or card numbers; never deposit a check and send money back; never pay someone who insists on cryptocurrency, a wire via Western Union/MoneyGram, a payment app or gift cards); FTC impersonation-scam spotlight (ftc.gov, 2024 data — fake package-delivery problems with redelivery-fee links, fake security alerts, and "move your money to protect it": anyone who asks is a scammer; real businesses and agencies never demand gift cards or Bitcoin ATM payments); FTC task-scam spotlight (ftc.gov, December 2024 — never pay anyone to get paid); FTC press release, "FTC Announces 2024 Top Frauds" / Consumer Sentinel data release (ftc.gov, March 2025 — $12.5 billion reported lost in 2024, up 25%, from 2.6 million reports; share of reporters who lost money 27% in 2023 to 38% in 2024; imposter scams most reported at $2.95 billion, government-imposter losses $789 million; investment scams $5.7 billion; bank-transfer and cryptocurrency losses exceeding all other payment methods combined; email the most common contact method); FTC, ReportFraud.ftc.gov (reports feed the Consumer Sentinel Network used by law enforcement); Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk — the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, URL checked October 25, 2026); Gen Digital newsroom (newsroom.gendigital.com, July 25, 2023 — Norton Genie launch: free scam detector for screenshots and pasted text of messages, emails, posts and websites, processed server-side per its product description; it checks messages and sites, not bank-statement charges).
Last updated: October 25, 2026.
General information only — not legal advice. This guide explains the scripts the FTC publishes and how to check a message or charge against them. Whether any specific message or charge is fraudulent is a determination for your bank and, where relevant, law enforcement. If money is moving, act today and verify through a route the message did not provide.
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